Floreana Island
Geography | |
---|---|
Location | East Pacific Ocean |
Coordinates | 1°17′51″S 90°26′03″W / 1.29750°S 90.43417°W |
Archipelago | Galápagos Islands |
Area | 173 km2 (67 sq mi) |
Highest elevation | 640 m (2100 ft) |
Highest point | Cerro Pajas |
Administration | |
Ecuador | |
Province | Galápagos Province |
Canton | San Cristóbal |
Parish | Santa María |
Capital and largest city | Puerto Velasco Ibarra (pop. 100) |
Demographics | |
Population | 100 |
Pop. density | 0.6/km2 (1.6/sq mi) |
Floreana Island (
Names
Floreana, sometimes written as Floriana,
The
History
Due to its relatively flat surface, supply of fresh water as well as plants and animals, Floreana was a favorite stop for whalers and other visitors to the Galápagos. Since the 19th century,
Still known as Charles Island, the island was set afire in 1820 as a result of a prank gone wrong by helmsman Thomas Chappel from the Nantucket whaling ship
In September 1835 the second voyage of HMS Beagle brought Charles Darwin to Charles Island. The ship's crew was greeted by Nicholas Lawson, acting for the Governor of Galápagos, and at the prison colony Darwin was told that tortoises differed in the shape of the shells from island to island, but this was not obvious on the islands he visited and he did not bother collecting their shells. He industriously collected all the animals and plants, and speculated about finding "from future comparison to what district or 'centre of creation' the organized beings of this archipelago must be attached."[8][9]
On 8 April 1888 USS Albatross, a Navy-manned research vessel assigned to the United States Fish Commission visited Floreana Island during a 2-week survey of the islands.[10]
In 1929, Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch arrived in Guayaquil from Berlin to settle on Floreana and sent letters back that were widely reported in the press, encouraging others to follow. In 1932, Heinz and Margret Wittmer arrived with their son Harry from Germany, and shortly afterwards their son Rolf was born there, the first person known to have been born in the Galápagos. Later in 1932, the Austrian "Baroness" von Wagner Bosquet arrived with two German companions, Robert Philippson and Rudolph Lorenz, as well as the Ecuadorian guide Manuel Valdivieso Borja. A series of strange disappearances and deaths (including possible murders) and the departure of Strauch then left the Wittmers as the sole remaining inhabitants of the group who had settled there.[11] They set up a hotel which is still managed by their descendants. Mrs. Wittmer wrote an account of her experiences as Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galápagos.[12][13][14] While residing in Tahiti in 1935, Georges Simenon wrote the novel Ceux de la Soif, which recounts these events in fictionalized form. The story was first published as a feuilleton in the newspaper Le Soir between 12 December 1936 and 1 January 1937, and as a novel by Gallimard in 1938.[15] Simenon´s novel was adapted for television in 1989, by Laurent Heynemann.[16] A documentary film recounting these events, The Galapagos Affair, was released in 2013.[17]
Asilo de la Paz, located in the highlands of Floreana Island, was the site of the island's first human settlement[18] and is now among its most popular tourist attractions.[19]
The demands of these visitors, early settlers, and introduced species devastated much of the local wildlife with the endemic
Geology
Floreana is a
Wildlife
The island has been recognised as an
When Charles Darwin visited the island in 1835, he found no sign of its native tortoise and assumed that whalers, pirates, and human settlers had wiped them out. Since about 1850, no tortoises have been found on the island (except for one or two introduced animals kept as pets by the locals), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the Floreana tortoise (Chelonoidis elephantopus sometimes called Chelonoidis nigra) as extinct.[24] However, it may be that there are pure Floreana tortoises living on other islands in the archipelago.[24][25][26]
Points of interest
- A favorite dive and snorkeling site, “Devil's Crown”, located off the northeast point of the island, is an underwater volcanic cone, offering the opportunity to snorkel with schools of fish, sea turtles, sharks and sea lions, which are abundant amongst the many coral formations found here.
- At Punta Cormorant, there is a green olivine beach to see sea lions and a short walk past a lagoon to see flamingos, rays, sea turtles, and nocturnalsea bird which spends most of its life away from land.
- Post Office Bay provides visitors the opportunity to send post cards home without a stamp via the over 200-year-old post barrel and other travelers.
- A miniature football field, complete with goals, at the end of Post Office Bay, is used by tour boat crews and their tourists.
Gallery
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Floreana Island
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Post Barrel
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Punta Cormorant with American flamingos
References
Citations
- ^ De Gueydon (1847), p. 349.
- ^ a b Kitchin, Thomas (1797), "South America", Kitchin's General Atlas..., London: Laurie & Whittle.
- ^ De Gueydon (1847), p. 350.
- ^ a b McEwen (1988), p. 237.
- ^ "Galápagos Islands Guided Tour – Isla Floreana, Ecuador". Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ISBN 0-14-100182-8.
- ^ a b Nickerson, Thomas. "Account of the Ship Essex Sinking, 1819–1821". Nantucket, Massachusetts: Nantucket Historical Society. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ^ Keynes, R. D. ed. 2001. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 356.
- ^ Marcel E. Nordlohne, M. D. "Seven-Year Search for Nicholas Oliver Lawson". galapagos.to. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
- ISBN 0-465-03810-7.
- ^ Strauch (1936).
- ^ Wittmer (2013).
- ^ "In Depth in Galápagos Islands at Frommer's". Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- About.Com. Archived from the originalon 2014-04-13. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
- ^ Simenon, Georges (1938). Ceux de la soif. Paris: Gallimard.
- ^ {{|title=Tout Simenon cite web|url=https://www.toutsimenon.com/adaptations/fiche-film/17-Ceux-de-la-soif_227}}
- ^ O'Malley, S. (2014-04-04). "Review of The Galapagos Affair-Satan Came to Eden". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2014-04-24.
- ^ Allison Amend (2017) "In the Footsteps of Charles Darwin" The New York Times. Published June 20, 2017. Accessed March 23, 2020.
- ^ E. Ruiz-Ballesteros & Brondizio, E. S. (2013). Building negotiated agreement: The emergence of community-based tourism in Floreana (Galapagos Islands). Human Organization, 323-335.
- ^ Fitter, Julian; Fitter, Daniel; and Hosking, David. (2000) Wildlife of the Galápagos. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p.83.
- ^ Fitter, Julian; Fitter, Daniel; and Hosking, David. (2000) Wildlife of the Galápagos. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p.68.
- ISBN 9781118852415.
- ^ "Floreana Island". BirdLife Data Zone. BirdLife International. 2021. Retrieved 21 January 2021.
- ^ a b "Extinct Galápagos tortoise may just be hiding : Nature News Blog". Blogs.nature.com. 2013-07-11. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
- ^ "'Extinct' giant Floreana tortoise may be alive, say scientists | Nature". The Earth Times. 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
- ^ "Extinct Galápagos Tortoise Could Be Resurrected". News.nationalgeographic.com. 2010-10-28. Archived from the original on September 25, 2008. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
Bibliography
- Royal Imprimery, pp. 349–398.
- McEwen, Alec (July 1988), "The English Place-Names of the Galápagos", The Geographical Journal, vol. 154, London: Royal Geographical Society, pp. 234–242, JSTOR 633849.
- Strauch, Dora (1936), Satan Came to Eden, Harper & Brothers, OCLC 3803834.
- Wittmer, Margaret (2013), Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galápagos, Midpoint Trade Books Inc, OCLC 857863449.
External links
- Floreana at Galapagos Online